Here's the first post on my new thread. It will be about the progress of my garden and some of the sights around Campbell River, BC, Canada. I hope folks enjoy it!

To begin with, here are 2 pictures of the new flower bed that I have been talking about all winter. One of them has been posted elsewhere here at Moosey's, but the other is new. Later on, I hope to show you some of the local beauty spots like the estuary of the Campbell River (part of which I posted before also) as well as some other places. Of course, I'll also keep everyone up-to-date on the progress of this garden, as well as that of the rest of my garden!

Here goes:

This was my home last September. The new garden is at the end of it where there can be seen a small lawn.

This is what the garden spot looks like now, with most of the plants newly placed in their spots. I still need to remove the 2 lilac trees and plant the background and foreground.

Go Gordon ! -It will be great to have all your pictures in the one place to get the sequence .I like the rust - red colour of the top board -I have just finished painting my front door that colour as it looks nice with the green of grass and foliage .
Dixie.

Dear Gordon, what a lovely surprise to discover your -own!- Diary, after this hard, but happy and sunny, gardening day!

So! This is great! We are following your gardening activites , like a film, now! And, your border looks like some of mine, neat , weeded, planted, fed! But , still, I have a long way to finish some more, mainly Rose borders..And on Tuesday we are leaving to Athens for a week...Tomorrow I really do not know if I manage to finish all my garden planned tasks, AND prepare for the trip...Oh, dear! I lost so many precious gardening time with that wintery weather...

But I wish you, to work productively and joyfully in your beautiful garden, with lots of warm sunshine! Maybe, I 'll have a look from Athens , from the computer of my son... Be happy!

"..So,perhaps, it is easiest, through awareness of flowers in particular, of their radiant beauty and purity, their vibrant colour, to come to the excellence of the One and be uplifted beyond thought to our divine selves".Dorothy Maclean

Here are some pictures that I took today (a cloudy day, of course) of another part of the reclamation of the estuary of the Campbell River with a few close-ups of some of our native spring flowers. I hope you like them.

This is a picture of part of the artificial spawning channel built for the salmon. It runs parallel to the main channel of the river with an industrial zone on one side and the river on the other.

Here's another view of the spawning channel - the logs across the water were blown down this winter and will be left there for the fish to hide under.

Here is one of the 3 foot bridges over the channel, with my dog, Joey, and his friend, Bella racing toward me.

This is a view from the bridge in the last picture; the fish seem to like rapids like this. You can't see them because they hid, but there were 2 river otters by the log just before I snapped the picture!

The dogs again - this time tussling over a stick!

This shows the measuring stick under one of the bridges - it measures the depth of the water. When it becomes too low, workers release more water from the power dam just upstream on the river.

This is the river channel where the artificial channel ends. Bakie Island, which I showed in earlier pictures, is in the distance. This area used to be a heavy industrial area.

There are many Erythroniums (pink and white) along this trail. Here's a white one.

This picture shows you the size of the Erythroniums.

A native Ribes bush in full bloom.

Another Ribes.

A Salmonberry bush in full bloom. This is, I believe, a member of the raspberry family, Rubus.

Skunk Cabbages in bloom in the middle of the city! These were beside the sidewalk on one of the busiest streets in town. The little creek empties into the river.

A closer view of the Skunk Cabbages.

Still more Skunk Cabbages! I love them, but they really ARE smelly!

One of the first trilliums in bloom beside the spawning channel - soon the woods will be full of them!

I have no idea what this bush is, but many of them grow right beside the water by the river. I wish I could have got a close-up, as they are quite beautiful flowers.

Another view of a neighbouring bush. I think this might be a different variety of the same genus. Oh, for a good close-up!!

An open anthill at the start of the Raven trail. By summer, these guys will have packed a little highway through the long grass - they bite, too!

This shows the little channel that joins the spawning channel in the foreground to the main river behind. As you can see, there are houses and hotels right to the banks of the river on the other side.

Well, the old song says that, "April showers bring May flowers", but what about April snow?? Less than 2 hours after I posted the pictures that I took earlier today, I woke up from an afternoon nap to find the air filled with huge snowflakes and the ground all white!! An April Fool joke from Mother Nature! Here's a couple of pictures of my garden just before dusk.

Well, Gordon, what a surprise for you to wake up to that snow. Don't worry, your little daffodils will be fine. Mother Nature can be full of surprises, but it is also great to know how resilient she can be as well. The photos of the Cambell River estuary reclamation are a perfect example. It is wonderful to see all the wildlife and wildflowers returning. I think the dogs enjoyed the outing as much as you.

How wonderful Gordon! You've finally started your own garden diary! An absolutely interesting one too to read and follow with a mix of your own lovely garden and neighbouring areas of interest! There's much beauty to appreciate in your wonderful pics. Great job! Thanks for sharing!

...And I enjoyed ALL those Nature and wild flowers photos! Those Skunk Cabbages are SO beautiful! What is their botanical name? And ALL flowers and bushes are so pretty! You are really lucky!

And, Gordon!! I am SO sorry! For the snow! I know exactly how you feel! To see your lovely daffs like this!..Anyway, I just saw your countryside in full Spring action, so , don't worry, maybe tomorrow will be a sunny, warm day!

"..So,perhaps, it is easiest, through awareness of flowers in particular, of their radiant beauty and purity, their vibrant colour, to come to the excellence of the One and be uplifted beyond thought to our divine selves".Dorothy Maclean

You were right; today was a lovely, sunny day, although in the shade it remained quite cold and some of yesterday's snow still was hanging around in the shady spots when the sun went down tonight. In the sun, though, it was so warm that I had to fully open my cold frame to avoid overheating my seedlings and new plants. I got a tiny, just rooted Daphne "Brigg's Moonlight" the other day for a fraction of the usual price from a nurserywoman who said that she really hadn't planned on selling any until late summer. I turned on the charm for all it was worth to persuade her to sell me one. She agreed after I promised to keep it in the cold frame until the weather warms. I'll post a picture of the little guy tomorrow.

I finally found the Latin name for Skunk Cabbage. It is Lysichiton or sometimes Lysichitum. There are only 2 species, one, with yellow flowers, from North America, and the other, with white flowers, from northeastern Asia. In summer, the leaves have a very tropical appearance, rather like those of cannas but parallel to the ground and up to a metre or more in length and 30 cm across. I suppose you could say that they look quite like giant Hart's Tongue ferns!

I'm starting a new, part-time job tomorrow for 2 days per week to support my gardening habits , so I have to get to bed pretty soon.

My email provider doesn't seem to be working properly today, so I came to Moosey's directly instead of just logging on to the threads that show up in my email. It seems that I've been missing quite a bit of news about members' knees, etc. But I hope to be up and running again in a couple of days!